Baby Foodie - Pasta Baked with San Marzano Tomatoes and Mozzarella Cheese

Conor loves tomato sauce! His first experience with it, he ended up sucking the sauce off and tossing the noodles to Otis! He enjoys pizza crust with sauce as well. I decided to make a large batch of basic tomato sauce to use and freeze. I kept it simple, just a mild flavor. It was super simple and makes putting together a baby friendly meal quick and easy.

(and in other news Conor’s dairy allergy seems to have subsided somewhat! Bring on the cheese!)

Easy Tomato Sauce (adapted from ButterYum)
**This makes a HUGE batch of sauce. If your food processor is on the smaller side, process it in two or more batches. Cut the recipe if you don't want leftovers.**

2-28 oz. cans San Marzano peeled whole tomatoes
2 Tbsp. olive oil

small sweet onion, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

2-6 oz. cans tomato paste (he picked out the can last week)
1/4 c. chopped basil

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent and just starting to brown, about 10-12 min. Add garlic and cook 1-2 min. longer. Add tomato paste, cook 5-8 min. longer, stirring frequently.

Add San Marzano tomatoes to food processor, process until smooth. Add onion/garlic/tomato paste mix and basil and process until smooth. Reserve 2 c sauce for baked pasta, freeze leftovers.

Sauce in baby glass bowl from the set Amy found.

For baked pasta,

16 oz. pasta (like maccherono, ziti or penne)

2 c. tomato sauce
2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

Cook pasta al dente in boiling water according to package directions.

Toss cheese with Italian seasoning. Layer ½ sauce (1 c.), pasta, remaining sauce (1 c.) and cheese in a casserole dish.
Cook 25-30 min. until cheese is melted and bubbly and starting to brown.

Cool and cut into bite size pieces for baby.

Leftovers freeze beautifully!